


Nothing Atypical

by TheEeveeTamer



Series: Modern Omegaverse [4]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alpha!Leo, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And by that I mean Takumi gets stalked by a non-Leo character, Blood, Established Relationship, Injury, M/M, Married Couple, Omega Sexism, Omega!Takumi, Stalking, just briefly at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:39:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23194108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEeveeTamer/pseuds/TheEeveeTamer
Summary: The hungry looks were supposed to stop after he got married.
Relationships: Leon | Leo/Takumi
Series: Modern Omegaverse [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1241282
Comments: 1
Kudos: 69





	Nothing Atypical

**Author's Note:**

> You probably don't have to read the other ones in the series, but it might help for some context.

Senior year had gone by in a blur of apathy and impatience, and he was eager to be out, move on. Get to college and be an adult with his mate. He still wasn’t happy about Leo going to a worse school just to be with him, but there wasn’t much he could do about it now that they’d been accepted.

Now it was time to relax and enjoy the summer. And the best part of that was waking up in bed next to his shirtless mate, of course.

Leo was a night owl, not to mention a bit of an insomniac, so Takumi always woke up first in the mornings. Sometimes that was a pain, because even in his sleep Leo kept his arms wrapped tight around him. But sometimes, when he wasn’t in a rush or too bored, he didn’t mind. His Alpha was warm and he got to listen to his soothing heartbeat as he slowly woke up. This was one of those kinds of lazy mornings. He snuggled into his chest for a while, until the sun was spilling in through the window at a decent slant and he could hear the other members of the household stirring.

He nuzzled Leo’s bond scar gently to start the process of waking him up. The aroma of  _ sleepy Alpha  _ was very enticing, but he needed to get out of bed before he wasted the entire day.

“C’mon, it’s ten o’clock Leo. I have stuff to do today.”

His mate mumbled sleepily. The only thing he could make out: “Five more minutes, love.”

He smiled up at his sleeping face. Gods, was his Alpha adorable.

“Come on!”

He tried extracting himself once more, but the vice grip the blonde had on him was too tight. Instead of getting out, Leo flipped him onto his back and kissed him gently. Apparently he was more awake than he let on. His eyelids lazily drifted open and appraised him.

“What are you so rushed for? Got somewhere to be?”

“Yes, I’m meeting my secret boyfriend in an hour and I want to look good for him, so get off!”   


He chuckled as Leo kissed along his jaw and down his neck. His Alpha paused at his bond scar, breath fluttering over the marred skin as he spoke.

“Well then, guess I’ll have to sully you first.” He growled, only the slightest hint of his teasing tone still in his voice. Leo nibbled gently at the mark; sparks of electricity shot down his spine and he let out a small, involuntary moan.

“L-Leo!” He mustered up all the strength in his arms -- which wasn’t much, since Leo had practically turned them into jelly with that move -- and shoved his handsy Alpha off of him. “Mama’s in the other room!”

The blonde sighed and kissed his cheek before he rolled over. “Fine, fine. Wake me back up at a more reasonable hour.”

He quickly reciprocated the cheek kiss before hopping out of bed. Leo pulled the blankets over his head to block out the light.

“Don’t forget, we get our housing assignment later today.”

But Leo was already snoozing again by the time the words finished leaving his lips. Whatever, if Leo wanted to miss breakfast that was his problem. He, however, smelled bacon, and he wasn’t going to miss it.

Mama eyed him suspiciously as he sat down at the table, still disheveled from sleep, hair frizzy and sticking up in places. His face must have been a shade of red past the usual, because she caught him completely off guard with the next thing she said.

“You know, you and Leo are always welcome to use the heat room if you need to.”

“M-Mama!”

Gods, he couldn’t wait to get to college. Mated pairs didn’t have to go through the trials and tribulations of dorm life. They got their own little apartments on campus, which meant a modicum of privacy. No nosy older brother prying whenever he was home from college, no Mama giving him knowing looks every time his mate got him a little bit more than flustered.

He couldn’t wait. He’d been refreshing his email every fifteen minutes for the past three hours, just waiting for that message to come in and tell him where he’d be living for the next year.

Leo rolled out of bed and emerged about an hour after he did, freshly showered and a little grumpy. He probably hadn’t been able to get back to sleep after Takumi woke him up. It’d be at least another hour before he was truly awake and ready to be a functional human being, but that didn’t stop him from rushing over when Takumi finally refreshed his email and got that long awaited message.

He skimmed over the email quickly, only reading half the words, just looking for the building name and apartment number. It was only when he got to the end that he realized there must have been a mistake.

“Wait no… That can’t be right?”

There was a dorm listed. Leo checked his listing as well, same issue. A dorm, not the apartments.

For fuck’s sake, they were married! Why weren’t they put in the married students housing together? They weren’t even in the same dorm! Granted they were still close by, but… He let out an exasperated sigh.

“It’s always something, isn’t it?! Gods!” He crossed his arms over his chest. After all the hoops they’d jumped through to get to this point, and the world couldn’t let them have this one thing.

“It’s probably just a mistake. I’ll call the housing office, okay? In the meantime just calm down.”

A sinking feeling told him that this wasn’t a mistake, though. There on his screen, plain as day, was the contact information for his assigned roommate. Apparently this was the first year the university was experimenting with mixed-gender housing, but he was relieved to see the little Omega symbol next to his roommate’s name. His dorm was formerly Omegas-only, but they’d started integrating to deal with their overpopulation problem. It was never more than half full anyways, so why not stuff the other half with Alphas and Betas?

It was the dorm he’d toured during their orientation. He’d hated the place. It was all reinforced doors and drab grey hallways. Seriously, if it just had barred windows then it’d be the complete prison package. He’d been so relieved when he realized that, as a mated couple, he and Leo would get to live in one of the university’s non-traditional housing units.

Leo stepped back in a few minutes later, and the foreboding look on his face told him that he’d been right.

“So, it’s not a mistake.”

“Yeah. I gathered that from the expression. What gives?”

“Apparently, thanks to that stupid new law, plenty of other couples had the same idea we did. And, as incoming freshmen, we don’t get housing priority.”

“Damn it.” He grumbled. He knew he should be happy. He got to go to college! But, well, it wasn’t exactly on his terms. And the one thing he’d been looking forward to -- living alone with his mate -- also came with stipulations.

Leo sat down on the couch with him and draped his arm over his shoulders.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. We’ll figure it out.”

“I know, I know… It’s just… So disappointing.”

“Put it out of your mind. It’s only for a year, and summer is too short to worry about it.”

“Stop being right and let me be upset.” He bumped his head against the blonde’s shoulder and sighed. But hey, when Leo was right he was right.

* * *

Move-in day was everything he expected and worse. They ended up taking two cars: one for all of his stuff and one for all of Leo’s. He and Mama borrowed the same old van they’d used to help Ryoma and Hinoka move in when they’d gone to college, and Leo came separately with his things in their usual car. Hours of driving, and he didn’t even get to spend that time with his mate.

Just looking at his dorm made him depressed. It was all concrete walls, reinforced doors, and the puny little windows barely let in any light. He was on the fourth floor of course, which meant dragging all of his things up four flights of stairs and to his tiny box of a room. The door was made of heavy steel, with a wood facade overlaid to make it seem homier.

The look on Ryoma’s face when he opened it and found it heavier than he’d expected was  _ almost  _ worth the price of admission.

“Seems… Secure.”

“Most prisons are.”

He was sure his brother would have appreciated the extra security if he were still unmated, but even Ryoma could probably see that all of this was constricting and unnecessary now that he had Leo. Heck, it would have been constricting and unnecessary even if he hadn’t already been married. Steel doors? Really? He knew that there were Alphas living in this dorm now, but the entire thing was completely unnecessary when only Omegas used to live here.

His roommate -- A squirrely looking brunette still wearing a collar -- was already there and settled in. He was sitting rather casually at his desk, laptop open and headphones in. He stood up to greet them, and Takumi realized that he was even shorter than he was, about level with Sakura.

They shook hands and exchanged names and pleasantries. Mama and Ryoma decided to run back downstairs to grab more stuff, which meant he was left alone to carry on a conversation with this complete stranger that he was now going to be living with. It didn’t take long for his new roommate to notice his accessories, or more aptly put, the  _ lack  _ of accessories. It was practically second nature for Omegas to look to each other’s necks for collars or marks, heck, he’d just done it without even realizing.

“Are you a hippie or something?”

“Excuse me?

His roommate pointed to his neck. “No collar. It’s getting more common not to wear them around here.”

“Oh, no!” He brushed his hair aside to show off his bond-scar. He forgot that his ponytail tended to cover it. “Happily married. Well, mostly happily.”

“Really? How long have you been hitched?”

“Just over a year now.”

Gods, it’d been an entire year. He’d completely forgotten to do anything for their anniversary, but then again... so had Leo.

“Lucky you! My boyfriend and I were thinking about sealing the deal, but it’s all so messy right now we thought we’d wait a year.”

“Oh, uh huh…”

He was really bad at keeping up the small talk, so he glanced around the room for anything of note he could comment on. That was when he realized that his roommate’s side of the room was rather empty. The bed was made up and there were a few items of clothing in the closet, but otherwise it was empty.

“Where’s all your stuff? Is your family coming with more later?”

“My family only lives about ten minutes away, and honestly as soon as I realized I’d be getting  _ this _ dorm I knew I’d be commuting. But my scholarship requires that I live on campus, so here I am! I probably won’t be around much, but lucky you! You and your mate get the whole place to yourself!”

That was lucky, wasn’t it? Maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad after all.

* * *

He didn’t get a chance to see Leo again until later that night. After he finished unpacking it was a whirlwind. There were hugs and kisses as he said farewell to his family, and he could only guess that Leo was doing the same in his dorm. Camilla didn’t live too far, so she’d offered to come up and help him out.

After all of that was over with, there were a series of meetings.

The first was with their entire floor about rules and expectations. Things were a little sticky with their living situation -- The university had never allowed Alphas and Omegas to stay in the same building, let alone on the same floor. But they’d admitted so many more Alphas than Omegas this year, and they didn’t have enough space in the Alpha dorms anymore.

The floor was divided in two, split straight down the middle. Alphas were not allowed into the Omegas section of the hall after a certain time, no exceptions. Takumi worried briefly that this would affect Leo, but they were mates right? That had to be an exception? The Omega bathrooms were down at the end of the hall, and there were to be no Alphas in there at all. If they had Alpha guests they had to walk to the other end of the hall and use the Alpha bathrooms.

Of course, they didn’t really have any way to enforce these rules. The floor was split pretty much down the center. There was no real marker to denote the divide; It was arbitrarily placed between two rooms somewhere near the center of the floor.

The entire meeting was an uncomfortable experience. From the moment they stepped into the cramped meeting room there was a clear divide. The Omegas were all huddled in one corner, and each group eyed the other for wholly different reasons. The Omegas were suspicious… The Alphas were hungry. Many of them weren’t even bothering to hide their staring. Takumi felt the eyes on him a few times while he was listening to the RA’s instructions, but he tried to ignore it.

It didn’t necessarily bother him anymore. It was still skeevy, but he had a mate now. And a mate was the best Alpha-deterrent he’d ever had. The second he pulled back his hair and revealed his bond-scar the vast majority of them lost interest. He did it on purpose, just a quick flick and the hair that had fallen over his shoulder was gone. He could feel the eyes fleeing from him as he did, a little satisfaction welling up in his stomach.

After that painful mess was over -- seriously, he wasn’t even sure his fellow Omegas understood anything, they were all so nervous -- the Alphas were shoved out of the room, and a few extra additions were added to their rules. Heat rooms are in the basement, don’t go into heat unless you’re in one. Wouldn’t want to tempt the Alphas on the floor.

Well, it was nothing he hadn’t heard before.

He just wanted to get this damn meeting over with so he could meet up with Leo. It had been such a long time since they’d spent even a couple of hours apart, he was getting antsy. When they’d been in high school there was always time between classes, at lunch, and at the end of the day they went home together and slept in the same bed. College was certainly going to be new territory for him.

He’d always thought those attached-at-the-hip couples were strange when he was younger, but now he couldn’t even remember why. It wasn’t that he needed to be around Leo, it was just that he couldn’t imagine a scenario in which things wouldn’t be better with him around.

Like, say, getting dinner on their first night at college when neither of them knew anyone. It would sure beat eating in the dining hall alone.

Speak of the devil. Takumi’s phone buzzed in his pocket, playing that little jingle he’d set especially for his mate.

_ Meeting is running a little long, meet you there? _

He smiled as his thumbs drifted over the keyboard on autopilot.

_ Of course. I’ll save us some seats. _

* * *

He’d barely sat down with his food before someone approached him. Takumi immediately recognized him as one of the Alphas from his meeting. Tall -- but what Alpha wasn’t? -- and broad, but in a different way than Leo. Leo wasn’t the most muscular, but he still had the prototypical broad shoulders and narrow waist that most Alphas sported. This man in front of him was built more like a truck: broad all the way from his head to his toes. More of a square shape. Not really his type, but some people were into that. In addition to that he had dark brown hair and eyes. Again, not really Takumi’s thing.

Not that he would think of him like that, being married and all. He had a thing, and that thing was Leo… But this guy was certainly thinking of  _ him _ like that, and Takumi wasn’t a fan.

“Hey, you live on my floor, right?”

“Uh, yeah... I guess so?”

“I’m trying to meet everyone I can. May I sit down?”

“... Sure, I suppose.”

He really didn’t feel like conversing. The entire day of unpacking and getting lecture after lecture on how not to be assaulted in his own bed had really worn on his nerves, and Takumi was just looking forward to eating his dinner and settling in for a quiet, solitary night in his room. Maybe with Leo, if he felt like joining him.

But at the same time, he didn’t want to be rude. Maybe he’d misread the guy and he really did just want to make friends with the people in the dorm. If he was just trolling for someone to date then Leo would surely scare him off once he arrived.

“Pretty big place, huh?”

He shrugged. “I guess. Doesn’t seem so big to me.”

“I’m from a small town, so anything more than fifty people in one place seems huge.”

“That’s… Interesting.”

Gods, Alphas needed to get better at reading social cues. He’d barely said two words and this guy was already off on some rambling tangent about his graduating class of four people and a horse, and Takumi was just nodding along and occasionally feigning interest with the vague question or two.

It took another ten agonizing minutes for Leo to appear, and when he did Takumi practically leapt out of his seat to hug him.

“Leo! Gods, you’re all sweaty…”

“It’s like a hundred degrees out.”

The Alpha sitting across from him had paused in his story, visibly annoyed at the intrusion. Takumi coughed awkwardly.

“Right Leo this is… Uh…” He hadn’t even asked for the guy’s name! He was blaming the move-in fatigue for that little slip.

“Brett. Nice to meet you. So you’re Takumi’s… Brother?”

“Mate, actually.”

“Oh…”

Leo sat down beside him, and he made a big show of leaning against his arm… Even if it was sweaty and disgusting from the manual labor.

As expected, the guy seemed a bit perturbed by Leo’s presence. Conversation slowed to a crawl after the appearance of his mate, and it wasn’t long before the guy picked up his empty plates of food and scurried off to find his next victim.

“Thank the gods…”

“New friend?”

“Not a friend. He just lives on my floor.”

“They have Alphas sharing your floor?”

Right, he couldn’t remember if he’d explained that to his mate just yet.

“Apparently so.”

He jammed a fork into his mashed potatoes and sighed. They were somehow both too hot and too cold, and there was barely any flavor. He already missed Mama’s cooking.

“I take it you weren’t interested?”

“Please, that guy’s only goal was to get into my pants.”

“I can’t imagine how he expected to do that. He wasn’t much of a conversationalist.”

“Before you showed up he wouldn’t  _ shut up!  _ So much for a nice, quiet meal!”

“It doesn’t have to be ruined yet. Why don’t you tell me about your day?”

His eyes lit up as he excitedly told Leo all about the best part of his day: His roommate. Or rather, the lack thereof. Immediately after their meeting the guy had taken his things and gone home, presumably for the rest of the semester.

“So, are you asking me to spend the night tonight?”

He said it with a wink. Gods, they were  _ married  _ and Leo still did this to him. It wasn’t fair.

He covered his burning cheeks with his hands. “I… I would like you to.”

They hadn’t slept apart in over a year. Mating hormones did weird things, but now that they were officially bonded it was so difficult to sleep away from each other. Any time they tried he always slept like utter garbage, and either he or Leo would end up crawling into bed with the other before too long. He was beginning to wonder if he’d ever be able to sleep again without the Alpha by his side.

“I accept. Nay, I  _ insist.” _

“Don’t get too cheesy. I can kick you out whenever I want.”

* * *

He gave Leo a tour of his room, but there wasn’t really much to show. A ten by ten square box with two beds, two desks, and some hideously large closets that were so big they might as well have been bolted into the floor. It didn’t take long but that was okay, because Takumi was tired and a little touch starved and he really just wanted to snuggle with his mate. The bed was small and cramped with both of them in it and the room was cold and unfamiliar, but the longer he lay squished into Leo’s chest the better he felt about the whole thing.

His mate tucked an arm over his waist and around his midsection, apparently unconcerned that it was going to go numb like that. The other was preoccupied with trying to get his new campus wifi to work on his computer so they could get on Netflix.

“What do you want to watch?”

“I don’t know. Anything.” He mumbled. He was busy scrolling through his text messages.

_ Are you going to be alright with all those Alphas around? _

His brother worried too much.

_ I’m fine. Leo is staying with me tonight. _

He held his breath as he waited for the response. He was eighteen now, an adult. His brother had never gotten along the best with Leo, but surely Ryoma could see that he was fine making his own decisions.

_ Good. _ Was the only thing he said.

Takumi sighed. He never thought he’d say it, but he missed his older sibling’s doting sometimes. It had been several years since they’d lived full time in the same house, but it stung all the more now that he was away from home as well. 

Leo kissed the top of his head. The movie started playing through his tinny speakers. Leo had put on one of those cheesy romantic movies just like they always watched when Takumi was upset. The dramatic kind, with pretty Omegas and dashing young Alphas to rescue them from their abusive bondmates with a  _ mark of true love --  _ the kind of thing stories always talked about but no one had actually seen in real life. It was a genre Takumi hated aloud, but secretly loved to watch. Especially when he got to snuggle into his mate’s chest and make fun of how ridiculous some of the writing was. He rested his cheek on Leo’s bicep and settled in just as a pretty blonde woman with cold eyes stepped onto the screen.

“Do you think it’s real?” Leo asked after a moment.   


“You ask me that every time we watch one of these, has my answer ever been yes?”

“It’s kind of romantic, isn’t it?”

“It’s a  _ myth _ , Leo. Soulmates don’t exist, and you certainly can’t erase someone’s bond, those are permanent.”

“But if we hadn’t met and you married some asshole? I like to think I could sweep you off your feet.”

“What makes you think I’d marry an asshole?”

“You have remarkably poor judgement.”

He snorted. “Okay, but think about  _ this  _ universe, please. What if it is real? Some prince charming could come along and steal me away from the asshole I married.”

“Point taken.” Leo chuckled before pressing another kiss to the top of his head.

The atmosphere was much more welcoming after that. Maybe they were finally through the worst of it.

* * *

His first day of classes was, well, weird to say the least. Everyone around him seemed just a little too helpful. By the time he reached his first class he’d already had three Alphas offer to walk him after he asked for help finding the building ( _ no thank you, just point me please _ ), and one that insisted on taking him. He’d practically been shoved toward the door of the building, and the tortue only ended when someone saw or smelled his distress and told the guy to knock it off. He’d bitten back a bitter  _ I can handle it myself!  _ before he walked the remaining distance to his classroom.

Morning classes were nothing special, just a math class he could pass in his sleep and an art history class that was going to put him to sleep.

He realized pretty quickly on his way to his third class that, like a dumb freshman, he’d packed his entire schedule full of classes from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon and he hadn’t left any time for food. It was almost noon now and his stomach was in desperation mode.

Luckily he’d gotten to his lecture about five minutes early; he took the opportunity to pull out his phone and shoot an SOS text to his mate. He couldn’t quite remember his schedule, but he was too desperate to care about disturbing him in the middle of class.

_ Leooo!  _ Gods he could practically hear his whininess bleeding through, but he was starving. It only took a couple of seconds to get a response back, so his mate was either not paying attention in lecture, or he was between classes.

_ What’s up? _

_ I forgot to give myself time for lunch. _

_ Seriously? What did I tell you? _

_ Yes yes, you’re right, you told me so, you’re always right, etc. Now can you please just bring me food before I starve to death? _

He tapped at the glass screen of his phone anxiously. What if Leo didn’t have time between his classes? He supposed this was some kind of divine punishment, right?

_ Alright. But you owe me dinner. I don’t have unlimited money, you know! _

_ You’re the best mate ever and I love you. _

_ Flattery will get you nowhere ;) _

It wasn’t going to cost him significantly more to buy two dinners than it would have to buy himself lunch and dinner, so he’d take the hit. He sent over his location and his order and sighed in relief.

He’d been so preoccupied with ensuring his stomach was full that he didn’t even register that someone had sat down right next to him. He only took notice when he sensed the presence of someone on his left side, a little too close to his elbow for it to be comfortable.

_ There are plenty of seats, damn it! Find a different one! Everyone else is leaving a respectful one-seat gap! _ At least, that’s what he wanted to yell, but the thought of everyone in the lecture hall looking over at him was enough to get him to keep his mouth shut. Classes were only forty five minutes, he could put up with it for that long.

“Hey Takumi, I didn’t know you were in this class!”

_ Gods…  _ He groaned internally. He’d recognize that voice anywhere. He’d been forced to listen to it for  _ twenty damn minutes  _ on move-in day.

And  _ really?  _ Was it really so surprising that they might be taking the same damn English gen-ed? The school wasn’t that big! Okay, it was pretty big, but how many gen-ed English courses could there be?

“Hi Brett.”

He, to put it frankly, didn’t like this guy. He didn’t like the way he was leaning over his shoulder to look at his phone, he didn’t like the way he breathed down his neck when he talked, and he certainly didn’t like the fact that he’d only spoken to him to get into his pants in the first place. He didn’t like that he only ever seemed to appear when Leo wasn’t around, and he definitely didn’t like what he said next.

“You seem down. Trouble with your mate?”

_ No you idiot, trouble with  _ you! He wanted to scream. He’d been feeling just fine before he’d shown up. A little hungry, sure, but just damn fine.

And why was he so eager for Takumi to have trouble with his mate? So he could swoop in and save the day like some shitty Romeo from some shitty movie? What, next he was going to roll up Takumi’s sleeve and find some horrible, hand-print shaped bruise, and Takumi would break down and cry because Leo was abusive but he couldn’t leave because of the bond scar? And then at the end it would turn out that they were ~soul mates~ so they could be together in the end after all?

Give him a break. That kind of shit only happened in movies. Terrible movies.

“I’m fine, thanks.” He said tersely, the rest of his internal monologue begging to bleed out so he could give this guy a piece of his mind.

Brett looked at him with something akin to pity in his eyes. He felt a deep growl forming at the back of his throat. It was bad enough that he was looking at him like a piece of meat, but now he was insulting his mate, too?

“I could take you out to dinner tonight if you wanted.”

“No thank you.”  _ I’m married, for fuck’s sake! Get that through your stupid skull! _

Either this guy was completely oblivious, had a fetish for fucking married Omegas, or he genuinely believed that Hollywood soul mate crap.

“You don’t have to stay with him if you’re not happy.”

“I’m perfectly fucking happy!” He snarled back. “And I don’t recall asking for your  _ opinion  _ on my relationship!”

He had no idea if it was a faux pas, but he picked up his backpack and moved a few seats down to the end of the row anyways. He’d rather watch Leo shove a hundred raw tomatoes in his mouth than spend another second gagging on this asshole’s putrid scent and listening to a lecture about  _ how he should do what makes him happy! _ He’d been “doing” Leo since he was fifteen, and he was more than happy with it, damn it!

Great, now he’d probably pissed the guy off, too. It was bad enough that he had some wishy-washy Alpha on his tail, but they lived on the same floor. He could feel the eyes on him, they prickled at the back of his neck and made his hair stand on end.

_ Please don’t move over here, please don’t move over here… _

Something tapped on his shoulder and he nearly jumped out of his own skin. He hadn’t noticed her before, but there was a pretty, pink haired Omega sitting directly behind the seat he’d moved to. She fidgeted slightly in her seat, like she couldn’t seem to keep still for more than a minute.

“Do uh, do you need help?” She whispered, cocking her head toward where Brett was collecting up his bag as well, eyes still boring a hole into Takumi.

He was loath to ask for help with any Alpha, especially not from someone he didn’t know… But asking for help seemed a whole hell of a lot better than getting stuck next to him for the remainder of the class.

“Yes, please.” He squeaked out as quietly as possible.

Without another word the girl dropped her backpack into the seat beside him, nearly tripped over the step that elevated her row -- how she managed to trip while going  _ down  _ was beyond him -- then  _ actually  _ tripped over his foot before she plunked herself down next to him.

Once she was settled she smiled kindly over at him. It reminded him a bit of Sakura.

“Sorry about that. I’m Felicia!”

“Er…” He glanced over to his left again, past her sun-shiney smile. Brett had dropped his backpack again and sat down, only occasionally glancing over with a sour look on his face. Whatever he’d been planning on doing he’d been foiled by Felicia. Forget Leo, he owed this girl a heck of a lot more than just dinner. “I’m Takumi.”

“Nice to meet you!”

Their haggard teaching assistant finally made his way into the room, so they didn’t have time for more. It was a pretty boring affair -- they just went over the syllabus, and that didn’t take very long.

He grabbed his stuff at the end of class, a full twenty minutes ahead of schedule, might he add, and he was ready to bolt out and not look back. A quick glance at Brett told him that might not be as easy as he’d hoped, though. He had that look. The  _ I-am-an-Alpha-and-if-I-want-to-say-something-to-you-you’d-better-damn-well-listen  _ look of entitlement. Takumi scoffed.

Felicia looped one of her arms in his and started chattering excitedly, though, and that seemed to fend him off. He was a little uncomfortable with the sudden physical contact, but he could deal with it if it kept this guy off his back. Before he could object they’d somehow already exchanged phone numbers, and she was going on about her next class.

Leo was waiting outside of the lecture hall on one of the benches. His left leg was folded over the right in that positively infuriating way that took up too much space, but he’d never been happier to see his mate. Leo didn’t notice him at first, too busy scrolling through something on his phone, until Takumi practically tackled him in a hug.

“I knew you’d be hungry, but not  _ this  _ hungry.” He teased, lifting up the bag with their sandwiches in it.

“It’s not that.” He turned around to say goodbye to Felicia, but she’d already disappeared into the crowd of people. His phone buzzed in his pocket.

_ I’m guessing that’s your mate. I didn’t want to ruin the moment :) _

He chuckled quietly to himself.

_ Thanks for the help _

“New friend?”

“I’ll tell you all about it on the way. Walk me to my next class?”

“Of course.”

He let go of the blonde and greedily snatched the sandwich out of his hand so he could eat while they walked.

“You remember that guy from dinner?” He asked between large bites of food.

“The one that wanted to pick you up? And don’t talk with your mouth full.”   


“Mmhmm.” This time he swallowed, but he didn’t miss the opportunity to roll his eyes at his mate. “He tried hitting on me again.”

“Wow. Tenacious. Is he going to be a problem?”

“Felicia kind of scared him off. Hopefully that’s the last of it.”

* * *

College wasn’t too different from high school, as it turned out. The food was worse and the housing was cramped, but he still dragged his ass out of bed every morning, sat in lectures, did homework, snuggled with his mate… It was all comfortingly familiar. He’d even managed to make friends. Felicia made sure to sit next to him every single English lecture, and after he’d told Leo about what had happened with Brett his mate was sure to wait for him and walk him to his next class, sandwich in hand.

He’d never really been friends with Omegas before. He’d known Oboro and Hinata since they were kids, before anyone had presented and people were just people. No overprotective big brothers, no assholes trying to shove him to class, no worries about stupid Omega laws or getting married or any of it. It’d been a little weird at first, sure. Alphas were always a little weird about controlling themselves after they first presented, but they’d gotten over it and gone back to swinging sticks at each other in his backyard in no time at all. Thank the  _ gods  _ for that, because he hadn’t been very keen on making new friends once he’d presented at the tender age of twelve.

No, it was far easier to stick with Hinata and Oboro. They didn’t crowd him with awkward pubescent flirting or make jealous jabs about how he was a slut just because he’d presented before them. Even after his classmates started getting their first heats he’d just never shaken the habit of pushing everyone away. Alphas still made garbage friends -- barring the two he’d grown up with, that is -- but maybe Omegas weren’t so bad. Felicia had gotten him out of a tough spot, so he didn’t even really mind when she chatted his ear off about how it’s far too warm here and how she wished her twin sister could have gone to school with her, but she was a Beta so she’d gone to a much nicer school in the same area. It wasn’t the sleepovers-and-braiding-each-other’s-hair kind of friendship, but he was okay with that, too.

Just like that, they fell back into their same old routine. Leo never spent a night in his own room, Felicia brought along some friends and joined them for movie nights, and he was just as tired and overworked as he felt then.

There was just one thing he could do without.

The incident in his English lecture had been bad enough, but this guy just didn’t seem to take a damn hint. Takumi wasn’t even sure if he understood the meaning of  _ take a hint,  _ or if that would just go straight over his head like all of the other signals Takumi was sending out.

A week later -- after Felicia had dutifully blocked him in every single lecture -- the guy started waiting in the common room by the stairs for him to pass by. Takumi started taking the back stairwell, but now that he knew when he left he’d started waiting in the lobby by the front door. Takumi took an extra five minutes to walk out the back and around the building after that. If it progressed any further then he’d have to start waking Leo up to walk him to class, which was something he really did not want to have to do.

Three weeks into the term he was woken up early on Saturday morning to a banging on his door. He groaned as the sound pierced his ears.

“You get it.” He nudged Leo’s shoulder.

“Why me?” He buried his face in Takumi’s neck, chin digging uncomfortably into his shoulder as he did so. He didn’t mind being his mate’s pillow, really he didn’t, but it always made it a little hard to breathe.

“Because you’re on top of me.”

Leo groaned and pulled himself upright, dragging his knees over the bed and jostling everything as he clambered out. Takumi took advantage of his newfound freedom by rolling over onto his side, with enough room behind his back for Leo to settle back in when he was done.

His half-asleep brain bristled when the door opened and the scent rolling off of his mate turned sour.

“What is it?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

There was a  _ thunk,  _ like something heavy was being thrown in the trash. He lifted his head to take a peek at the garbage can, and he just saw the tips of a bouquet of roses poking out of the top, presumably in a vase.

Gods, he really was one of those soulmate assholes, wasn’t he?

“Try not to let him rattle you.”

_ Easy for you to say.  _ He thought.  _ Alphas never have to worry about shit like this. _

He didn’t want to let it ruin his day. Gods, he didn’t. They’d finally gotten settled and things had finally calmed down enough that they’d both found a good time to go on a date. A real date, like they hadn’t been on in a long time. With flowers and candles and a nice restaurant and, hopefully, sex afterwards. It’d been too damn long since he’d gotten laid, and he was not going to let some alpha male asshole ruin that for him.

The rest of the morning went rather smoothly. He praised the gods above, again, that his roommate had decided to skip the whole dorm experience. Over the past three weeks Leo had been slowly moving his things in, and now he barely inhabited his other room. All of his clothes filled the empty drawers, his books filled the empty desk, and his sheets were on the empty bed that they’d pushed next to Takumi’s to form a pseudo double (with the permission of his roommate, of course). They were both pretty sure that Leo’s roommate was keeping _his_ significant other, which probably freed up another room for someone else’s significant other, on and on. They should really give his roommate a metal or a plaque or something because he was doing the work of the gods: ensuring horny mates everywhere got to spend some alone time with each other.

Other than to shower and grab breakfast they didn’t leave the room at all that day. The morning was spent getting caught up on studying, because they were only three weeks in and somehow they already had exams looming over their heads. But he was driven to distraction the entire day by the bundle of red roses occupying his trash can. He tried to slyly look over at it a few times when he thought Leo wasn’t paying attention, which only prompted his mate to move them to a more out of sight trash can in the hall.

“Don’t you have an exam Monday?”

“Yeah…”

“Then you should probably study. I’m not above postponing this date so you can concentrate.”

“You bastard. You wouldn’t.”

“It’d be a pity too, it’s supposed to be a special surprise~”

“Okay, okay! I’m studying, see!”

He knew Leo would never call off something like this, but, well, he did have a point. It was just so hard to think about school when there was a very visible menace living twenty feet down the hall. There was nothing to do but put his nose in his book and try to concentrate for the remainder of the afternoon. He wasn’t sure if he actually absorbed anything into his brain, but once the sun was beginning to set Leo tapped him on the shoulder and told him to get ready.

He knew they were going to a restaurant, but of what caliber he had no idea. Probably nice, because Leo didn’t do things in half-measures, but not too fancy since neither of them could really afford anything too upscale. He wished he still had Sakura there to give him clothing advice… He really wasn’t great with this stuff. Meanwhile Leo could throw on anything and look effortlessly amazing and  _ gods  _ was he a little jealous of his mate’s ability to do just that.

Leo wasn’t dressing too fancy from what he could tell. Just a nice, clean black button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and dark jeans. He tried to mimic the style without being  _ too  _ obvious about mimicking the style, but Leo probably noticed because three minutes into agonizing between a light blue shirt and a red shirt his mate stepped in and picked one out for him. Blue, because  _ red washes you out, remember? _ He didn’t remember, that’s what Leo was for.

Leo did everything short of blindfolding him to keep the surprise intact. There was one moment where he came  _ so  _ close to figuring out their location by peeking over his shoulder as he figured out the address, but alas Leo had foiled him.

They ended up at a lovely Japanese restaurant, not too expensive but not exactly cheap, either. He grabbed his mate and pulled him into a hug, all of his previous worries pushed out of his mind. This was just what he needed, good food and conversation about anything other than the asshole down the hall.

And when they got home... He didn’t even give the Alpha a chance. As soon as his door was locked behind him he shoved the blonde down onto the bed and situated himself over his hips.

Sure, maybe they should have tried to be quiet. But it was a little hard to stop the sound of the headboard repeatedly slamming into the wall, and he’d been dying to hear those noises come out of Leo’s mouth again.

They fucked so loudly he was sure the entire dorm could hear it. And it was _so_ worth the side-eyes he was going to get for it in the morning. He settled himself comfortably on Leo’s chest, knot pulling at his rim oh-so satisfyingly as he nuzzled his mate’s bare skin.

“I fucking  _ needed  _ that.” He mumbled, eyes already heavy. What could he say, sex was always such a great stress reliever. He swore Alpha dicks were magical because it felt like someone had gone in and stitched all of his frayed nerves back together. Or maybe it was just Leo, being close with his mate always made him feel better.

He fell asleep to Leo gently stroking his hair and his steady heartbeat.

* * *

He didn’t know what woke him up, but he woke up in a cold sweat around three in the morning, and Leo wasn’t there.

Whatever it was that told him to check the hall… He was grateful for it. He slipped on his shoes and padded down the hall, and just as he rounded the corner he caught sight of his mate, bloody and so angry Takumi could practically feel it vibrating off of him. He was in a scuffle with another Alpha, and they were noisy enough that several students with rooms next to the bathroom were poking their heads into the hall… Including Takumi’s RA.

The other Alpha didn’t seem to notice the commotion. He was intent on driving the knife in his hand through Leo’s chest.

Takumi didn’t even think. One moment he was standing at the end of the hall, shocked and worried because  _ that was a lot of blood _ , and the next he was tackling the larger man to the ground. He wished he’d grabbed his pepper spray out of his bag for good measure. Alphas were strong, but Takumi wasn’t exactly light either.

He realized belatedly that it was Brett with the knife. Once he was on the ground the RA kicked the weapon away, and the much heavier Alpha took on the task of restraining him while he ordered someone else to call the police.

Takumi had to stand up quickly and grab Leo around the waist, because the second he stood up his Alpha lunged at the man on the floor once again, hoping to kick him while he was down.

“Leo! Leo gods, stop! You’re bleeding!”

He grabbed his mate’s arm. There were several long gashes on his left forearm and one on his left hip. Like someone had just barely missed stabbing him in the stomach. The ones on his arm didn’t look too bad, but his side was bleeding a lot.  _ Panic mode  _ levels of blood.

The adrenaline must have been wearing off. Leo stumbled forward, then leaned heavily against the wall. Takumi pulled his own shirt off over his head and pressed it into his side to try and stem the flow of blood.

“He… H-He-”

“Shh. It’s okay, you shouldn’t talk right now.”

“He was  _ waiting there,  _ Takumi.”

His blood ran cold.

“He… He was..?”

He could feel it again. Those eyes were boring into his back.

Takumi didn’t want to turn and look, but he had to. Brett was lying flat on his stomach, hands held behind his back. But he was staring straight up at him, glaring with a vitriol that Takumi had never experienced in his life. Once he saw it he couldn’t look away.

He had never in his life been terrified by an Alpha. Disgusted, yes. Annoyed, betrayed, condescended to? Absolutely. But fear wasn’t a word in his vocabulary until now. Brett himself wasn’t so scary. There was nothing atypical about him really, aside from the crazy. Tall, moderately handsome… The whole package to the right guy or gal.

No, the fear came from knowing how close he was. If Leo hadn’t gotten up to go to the bathroom, then it easily could have been him under that knife.

The few minutes between that and when the cops and the paramedics arrived felt like it took hours. It’d taken all of his effort to pull out his phone, his shaky fingers took several tries to type out a short message to everyone in his family.  _ Leo’s in the hospital.  _ It was all he could manage. They didn’t let him ride in the ambulance, and when he got there they wouldn’t let him back into the room 

Takumi spent the rest of the night in a near panic in the hospital waiting room while an officer interrogated him. An interrogation that boiled down to him sitting with his head in his hands muttering  _ I don’t know. I just don’t know  _ over and over until the officer realized that he really was too distraught to be helpful.

Camilla arrived within the hour and he was grateful for it, because, no matter how awkward he might feel around his mate’s family sometimes, she was still there to bark at nurses for information in his stead and to hold him close as he broke down in the waiting room.

Finally,  _ finally,  _ after hours of waiting they were allowed back to see him. Leo was there, slumped against the pillows with an IV in his arm and bandages all along his side, but he was alive.

“You  _ idiot! _ ” Takumi rushed to his side and grabbed his hand. “I cannot believe you tried fighting him! What if he’d killed you?”

“‘M sorry…” He mumbled, a strange little grin on his face. Gods, how many painkillers did they have him on? “Knew he was waiting for you… Jus’ saw red...”

“We’re too young for you to leave me a widow! Don’t you dare ever pull that shit again!”

“Mmkay…” He sighed, eyes drifting shut. “Tired now… Shhhh...”

Takumi rolled his eyes as the Alpha settled into his bed. When he was reasonably sure his mate was asleep, he bent down and placed a gentle kiss on the top of his head.

“Thank you. I love you, you idiot.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was like 22 pages help. I'm not doing any more requests until I finish all of these, cuz they're all getting ridiculously long.
> 
> Text of the original request:
> 
> "Fic idea/request: Omegaverse leokumi where alpha Leo protects omega Takumi from another alpha and gets badly injured in the process."


End file.
